We got our oldest a new bike for Christmas (he's 7 and a half and loves his new 24" 7-speed Trek mountain bike) and riding around the playground wasn't cutting it. On a whim I decided to pick up a cheap bike to see if I even liked riding.

There's a great local shop that fixes up donated bikes and sells them for charity (http://www.yelp.com/biz/re-cyclery-b...hop-san-rafael). I was determined to get a "cheap bike" just to ride around with my son.

Several years ago I bought a mountain bike and discovered that I didn't actually like mountain biking, especially the part where you bury half your energy into your suspension when you ride on the road. This time I decided to get a road bike and I was hoping to find something with straight-ish handlebars.

I adored this bike right away, but was convinced it was too big for me. I'm 6'1" and it's a 63cm bike. I rode it around a bit, and fell in love. For $250 I picked up an early 80s Univega Sportour w/ the Suntour Symmetric downtube friction shifters.



I've ridden around a bit for the last few days and am totally hooked. The best part is that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I'd love to learn more about these symmetric friction shifters. Sometimes they are amazing, and they are almost constantly confusing but totally fun. I have no idea what else is going on with the bike, parts wise, but the handlebars are awesome and have these asymmetric grips with flanged bits for your wrist.

Some quick questions, if I may:
* Should I be posting questions about the bike and its parts in the Vintage forum or the Hybrid forum or what?
* Can anyone enlighten me about friction shifters in general, and these symmetric shifters in particular?

Looking forward to learning a ton and having a blast riding around.